Selectmen warn of likely tight budget season

Thursday

Nov 29, 2012 at 6:00 AMNov 30, 2012 at 12:00 AM

By Michael Kane BANNER EDITOR

It appears the reprieve for Boylston’s budget could be a one-year event. Selectmen last week asked Town Administrator Martin McNamara to return to the previous year’s policy of asking for three budgets from department heads, including one with reductions.

Last year, after the state announced an unexpected increase in tax revenue, Boylston employees received pay raises, and some capital issues were resolved, like replacing failing septic systems at the library and Town House.

Still, some things were left undone. Selectmen Chairman Kenneth Sydow acknowledged that, but pointed out that preliminary word out of Beacon Hill this year is that revenues are lower than expected.

“We could come up with a decrease in revenue next year,” Sydow said. “The state is making all sorts of noise about less money going back to the cities and towns.”

McNamara said the town should prepare for level-state aid.

“It doesn’t look like they are collecting the revenues they thought they would, and there is no major new growth increases for us,” McNamara said.

Sydow wanted to return to the policy followed in recent years of having department heads draft three budgets. One would represent a budget with the same amount of money as last year. One would show the impact of a 2 percent increase, and one would show the impact of a 2 percent decrease.

True impact is typically somewhere in the middle.

Selectmen and the Finance Committee typically use the three budgets in tandem, to develop the overall budget that is presented to town meeting.

For example, a one-person department or departments staffed by part-timers cannot always cut 2 percent. Likewise, selectmen may deem some things important enough to survive what would be a cut to a department.

Although, there can be times in which the process doesn’t work as intended. For example, in the past, the three budgets by departments governed by elected boards other than selectmen were not always submitted.

This latest request is also based on comments coming from state leaders. The governor’s budget, the first to be filed at the state level, is still at least two months away. The board does have a meeting with State Representative Harold Naughton Jr. in December, which could give it more details.

“We have no revenue projections, but it is not looking good,” Sydow said. “We have to be prepared for potential reductions.”

So far, selectmen have only received one preliminary budget, that of the Boylston and Tahanto school districts.

The move of the sixth grade from Boylston Elementary to Tahanto is expected to create a savings in the local budget of about $275,000. However, the Tahanto budget could increase about $415,000 for Boylston if it stands as presented, McNamara said.

Sydow showed no surprise at the school budget, instead indicating it was the department’s first budget presentation and was created without revenue numbers. He said he expected the school committees would re-address the budget as more information became available.

“I’m sure they’ll come up with where we need to go and they’ll work from there,” he said. “But, in the last week or two, the word coming from the state hasn’t been positive.”

Sydow is also suggesting that the town follow-through on a chart developed last year by outgoing Town Administrator Nancy Colbert-Puff.

The chart, developed around the series of capital projects that were being requested last December, uses a formula based on Boylston’s property values to determine, with a fairly accurate estimation, how much each $100,000 added to the budget would affect the tax rate.

By having the chart, voters will know how much the budget is costing them in property taxes when discussions come up later about either cutting budgets, or if departments seek Proposition 2 ½ increases.